Samirah Jaigirdar ā22 - The Experience, Samirah Jaigirdar '22
Group shot by MJ Peters
In my first spring semester at ĢĒŠÄTV, I went to Palmer Auditorium to watch CCEmpowerās annual show. The purpose of CCEmpower is to perform a show that represents women and non-binary students across varying identities through unique, but unifying voices. CCEmpower's show involves ĢĒŠÄTV students submitting monologues that showcase their lived experiences. The goal of this organization is to create an inclusive space to bring students together and reflect on their lived experiences, while also raising money and awareness for Safe Futures, an essential service in Southeastern ĢĒŠÄTVecticut that provides support for survivors of domestic abuse.
This winter break, I did not go home to Bangladesh. Instead, I stayed in the U.S. and visited my friend in Los Angeles. After my brief trip, I came back to campus early. Most students were not back and the quiet serenity gave me some time to reflect on the parts of ĢĒŠÄTV I will miss the most as I start my last semester here.
Getting Mozzarella Sticks from Oasis Nothing can quite live up to an impromptu Oasis Cafe visit with my friends at midnight. Whether itās after a hard night in Shain Library during midterms or on a Saturday during a hangout, the Oasis mozzarella sticks hit all my salty and cheesy cravings.
Sprinting to Tempel Green to take photos of the sunset I have lost count of how many times I have spied a sliver of either orange or pink from the windows of Shain Library and I raced to Tempel Green to take a photo of the sunset behind Harkness Chapel. As I grew up in a crowded city, I rarely saw such a magnificent sight. Thus, ĢĒŠÄTV sunsets hold a special place in my heart.
Getting a mid-afternoon coffee from Coffee Grounds I like to use our student-run coffee shops as a study break. I particularly like visiting Coffee Grounds as a lot of the baristas and bakers are my friends. My recommendations for CG are their matcha lattes and shaken espresso with a cinnamon shot.
SGA General Assemblies on Thursdays Throughout my junior and senior year, I have been heavily involved with ĢĒŠÄTVās Student Government Association. We usually hold our general meetings on Thursdays, hence, it has become a weekly constant in my schedule. Itās a great forum for students to make their voices heard, get involved with a co-curricular activity, and an opportunity to make friends who are not in my class year or major.
Cooking with my roommate in our on-campus apartment In my senior year, I was lucky enough to get an on-campus apartment with one of my best friends. She was my roommate in my first year of ĢĒŠÄTV. We wanted to come full circle and be roommates in our senior year too. Having a kitchen to cook in at the end of the day has been a great stress reliever after a long day of classes and SGA appointments.
Late nights in Shain Library If you couldnāt tell by this blog post, I spend a lot of time in Shain Library. But I donāt study all the time there. Shain first floor is my second home on campus. I hang out with my friends and occasionally, do some work. We have two tables we always sit at and we run into the same groups of people which makes Shain the most comforting place on campus.
My Professors I always say that āthe people make ĢĒŠÄTV.ā Throughout my time at ĢĒŠÄTV, I had the pleasure of working with numerous professors who I have depended on heavily. Starting from getting help outlining my papers during my first semester to advising me on my graduate school applications, my professors have made my ĢĒŠÄTV experience so much better. ĢĒŠÄTVās small class sizes and the frequency of office hours have ensured that my professors know me well. These relationships served me well for graduate school applications as they advised me on whether a particular program was suitable for me.
These are small snapshots of the things that have made my ĢĒŠÄTV experience memorable. In my last semester, I intend to enjoy all of these while eating as many Mozzarella sticks as possible.
Itās hard to believe I am a senior at ĢĒŠÄTV. I still remember my first few days here like it was yesterday. I arrived at night, geared up for international student orientation the next day. I had never actually been to campus prior to my arrival, so I didnāt really know where things were except my residence hall and the dining hall. So when my schedule told me to go to Tempel Green for ice-breakers and the start of Odyssey, I was quite lost. I meandered around trying to find Tempel Green until a very kind person pointed out that I was actually walking around it. Mortified and embarrassed, I remember uttering a thank you and running away. This was pretty much me the entire orientation.
Itās hard to believe I am mere weeks away from being a rising senior at ĢĒŠÄTV. After a few more papers and classes, I will be entering my last year at this place I have called home for three years. One of the bittersweet parts of my transition from junior to senior is less about me and more about the people I spend my time with. Iām in a short-form improv group on campus called N20. We meet three times a week to practice our performances. Two members of the group are seniors and this month they will perform their last show at ĢĒŠÄTV. I will miss their energy and presence but am excited for them too.
Clockwise from L-R: Declan Rockett ā20, Scarlett Diaz-Power ā20, me, Morgan Grant ā20, Mia Barbuto ā22, Becca Collins ā21, Carly Sponzo ā21 and Sonia Joffe ā19
Itās opening night. The show was scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m., while the team and I arrived in the theater at 6 p.m. The cast warmed up then changed into costume while Morgan, Declan and I placed furniture, decor and did checks for lights and sound. As the hour approached, people began to arrive and wait in the lobby. Around 7 p.m., Morgan and I started pacing, anxiously floating between the lobby, theater space and the āhobbit holeā, a room in which the actors stay before the show.
The LGBTQIA Center has always been a space at ĢĒŠÄTV where I feel comfortable and at home. As a first-year student, when I went to the Centerās annual ice cream social at the beginning of the fall semester, I walked in as a shy new student who knew no one and did not really know who he was yet. The Centerās orange walls made me feel warm inside and, while I met many new people that night, the thing I remember most was the community bond that came out of that orange space. I felt welcome. Even though I was not out at the time it did not matter. I still felt like a part of the community tightly gathered in the room. That feeling drove me to get involved with the Center more and more during my time at ĢĒŠÄTV. As a senior, I am still involved. I am in the peer mentorship program where first-years and sophomores are matched with juniors and seniors to help guide them through their college experience and answer questions. Being able to help other queer students through their college experience and being able to answer questions that I wish I could have asked someone has been rewarding, to say the least.
I put up posters around campus to promote my class
Growing up bilingual, I donāt remember learning to speak either English or Bengali. I donāt know if I learned the alphabet first or how I knew to tell the difference between the words for a lamp and a lightbulb or how the two languages differed phonetically from one another. I donāt know how I learned and I could surely not advise someone trying to acquire a new language.
The graphic for the show, designed by my friend Halley McArn (Brown University ā19)
This is the first of a collection of posts about my first time directing a play. Iāll take you through the pre-production process, rehearsals, and opening night.
The orchestra playing a dramatic passage at last fallās concert.
The end of the semester is always a busy time for me, and, as Iāve previously written, one of the highlights of this period are the various music department end-of-semester concerts and recitals that I participate in. No matter how intense it gets, the end of semester orchestra concert is still a great highlight and culmination of my hard work. This past semesterās performance was particularly special for me as it presented an impromptu opportunity to play with some of the best musicians in the countryāthree members of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy Bandās trombone section led by Sean Nelson, who is the music departmentās trombone professor, in addition to ĢĒŠÄTVās own Gary Buttery on tuba, who served as the Bandās principal tubist from 1976-1998. The group constituted our orchestraās low brass section for our performance of Antonin Dvorakās Eighth Symphony.
International Students at ISAās winter get together
Sitting on the tarmac at Philadelphia International Airport, I was frustrated, tired and jetlagged. I had been traveling for nearly 27 hours and plane food has never cheered me up. I was heading back to ĢĒŠÄTV after one month of winter break and my plane had been diverted to Philadelphia because of the winter storm. I was supposed to land at JFK by 8:30 a.m. and catch the Flying Camel (the College bus between JFK International Airport and ĢĒŠÄTV) at 1 p.m. It was now 11 a.m. Would I even make it?
Muslim Student Association Members with President Bergeron, her husband, Butch Rovan, and Dean of Institutional Equity and Inclusion John McKnight at the presidentās house.
This October, President Katherine Bergeron had members of the Muslim Student Association (MSA) over to her house for dinner. The MSA at ĢĒŠÄTV aims to build a warm and comforting environment for Muslim students and to educate the wider ĢĒŠÄTV community about the nuances of the culture. Established in 2015 by a Bangladeshi ĢĒŠÄTV alum (just like me!), the MSA has introduced me to new friends and given me a wider exposure to how Islam is practiced in different regions of the world.
One of my biggest fears going from a high school class of 45 students to a college of about 1,900 was how I would leave all of the clubs and activities I was involved in and somehow restart in a different, much larger place. Itās hard to imagine having to transition while also trying to find places, groups and clubs on campus that you want to get involved in. When I arrived at ĢĒŠÄTV for my first year it was important to me that I joined clubs and took on other responsibilities outside of academics because I wanted to meet new people that I had shared interests with.
Me as Orsino in my first ĢĒŠÄTV show, Shakespeareās Twelfth Night, or What You Will. (Photo by Jack Beal ā18)
I came from a high school with a lot of amazing students. Among them were some extremely talented artists who, in my opinion, were ahead of their time. Many of these artists were actors from our theater department, a department I called home and which encouraged my passion for acting. However, I also found myself pulling away from its competitive nature. Iāve never been a competitive person, and have never cared to only audition for principal roles or pursued a show just to say I was a part of it. Iām also a person who likes to learn from other people, grow, and at some point be in a position to teach or mentor others. I felt there wasnāt much space for me or many others to do that, and I knew it wasnāt quite the place for me. Iāll admit that one of the main reasons I didnāt think I would major in theater or be involved in the department in any way when I arrived at ĢĒŠÄTV was because of my assumption that all theater departments are competitive or unwelcoming. I was worried that I wouldnāt have a shot at being in a show and that those active in the department wouldnāt concern themselves with encouraging or recruiting others to join the department.
When I graduated from high school in New York two years ago (yikes!), it never occurred to me just how far my closest friends would be traveling for their respective undergraduate educations. Some of my friends committed to schools as far as California, while others (like myself) decided to stay a bit more local to the tri-state area of New York, New Jersey and ĢĒŠÄTVecticut.
My heart stopped when I looked at my friend, Julia Horowitz, and realized it was our time. āOh God, here we go,ā her expression seemed to say. She grabbed my hands as we turned to face our audience, full of our friends and friends of friends, to explain our next game. āJarvis Canāt Rap is a game where we do a scene based on your suggestions,ā she said, mildly laughing. āWe start to rap whenever a beat is dropped by Mark [McPhillips] until it stops and exposes our lack of musical talents.ā
As I write this post, Iām sitting in my room, listening to the Broadway recording of the musical āThe 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Beeā on YouTube. Just over 24 hours ago ĢĒŠÄTVās student theater community, Wig & Candle, closed their production of that play in Palmer 202, a black box theater and classroom space that is often used for student productions. The production was so popular that we had to add an additional late night performance. Although I have regularly attended Wig and Candleās performances, this was my first time actually participating in one; I played clarinet in a reduced pit band of two.
As I sat with my feet shoulder-width apart, Rabbi Susan Schein led our Hillel group in meditation. As Jews, we are in the midst the month of Elul. Elul is the month leading up to the High Holy Days, of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. It is also during this time that I am drawn to exploring meditations and thinking about the year ahead of me even as I reflect on the past year. At our most recent home-cooked Shabbat dinner, I took a liking to a unique part of the Shabbat service. After all, the Shabbat meal is the beginning of the day of rest and I wanted to explore my spirituality within Judaism. This meditative exercise came from Psalm 27 in which, the kingdom of G-d is proposed and challenged.
It was yet another bright and sunny Friday afternoon at ĢĒŠÄTV, and the annual club fair was in full force on Library Green. I was running the Ski Club booth given my new position as president for this academic year. Along with the other club members, I had been recruiting new members for about an hour before I took a break to say hi to my friends at other booths. My friend and fellow blogger, Dani Maney ‘20, was running a booth at the fair for her improv group N20.
One Thursday morning this semester, the stars finally aligned for us to hold a sectional rehearsal for the orchestra’s clarinetists. No other wind instruments and definitely no strings present! It was just Scott, the other clarinetist, our professor, Kelli O’ĢĒŠÄTVor, and me running through orchestral music together. One of the pieces we played in orchestra this semester is the impressionist composer Maurice Ravel’s “Mother Goose Suite.” As is typical of his works, it features complex, mystifying and beautiful harmonies. Part of our job in a sectional is to learn to get these harmonies in tune, which helps the orchestra sound better.
One recent Thursday morning, the stars finally aligned for us to hold a sectional rehearsal for the orchestra’s clarinetists. No other wind instruments and definitely no strings present! It was just Scott, the other clarinetist, our professor, Kelli O’ĢĒŠÄTVor, and me running through orchestral music together. One of the pieces we’re playing in orchestra this semester is the impressionist composer Maurice Ravel’s “Mother Goose Suite.” As is typical of his works, it features complex, mystifying and beautiful harmonies. Part of our job in a sectional is to learn to get these harmonies in tune, which helps the orchestra sound better.
